Twenty years and a day

[Martin Blank]

On February 14, 2003, Real Life Forums officially launched. The forums had previously been set up by Mae (then Greg) Dean on EZBoard. We had an IRC channel...somewhere I don't remember. I do remember Jarp offering me the opportunity to become a channel moderator. Eventually, I set up a new IRC server running IRCd and some services, at which point I (obviously) took over full operations.

A handful of us had been experimenting with various forums in the background for a couple of months, and it came down to either phpBB or IkonBoard, a perl-based forum. While IkonBoard seemed to be a little more slick, for some reason, it didn't feel right. I'm glad we went with phpBB, because support for IkonBoard that utterly collapsed a few years later.

The actual installation happened at 06 Feb 2003 20:11 PST. We were running on LunarPages at the time. They were a moderately-sized hosting company at the time and seemed to have good support. I think I paid about $6 or $7 a month for them at the time, no SSL, running on a shared host and all the security issues that it entailed. But it was good. A few key people had access in the background to set it up. Me, Mae, Circe, enisoc, ZenGyro, Lizzegirle, and Mav were the first. We structured it kind of like the EZBoard architecture for the transition, but we soon took on our own structure.

We sort of launched the day before, but (and I'm hoping that I'm not revealing anything anyone wanted to keep secret) after protest from the artist and their then-girlfriend, we feigned an issue and delayed the launch a few hours to match up with (IIRC) their first dating anniversary. A handful of users had already registered. Looking at the database, Tigwa, Siward, mikehendo, and a few others snuck in before I put it in maintenance mode to delay the official launch. A few people stuck around on EZBoard and kept that alive for a few years, but most of the action moved here.

Looking back over those early names, I see a lot of very different people of very different backgrounds and ages. We were all brought together by one thing: daily fascination with one cartoonist's weird presentation of their daily life. I still talk to a handful of them now and then. From those early users I know of at least one MD (YH), one Ph.D (Tower, now Dr. Tower), several IT people, and at least three (?) transitions. There are a bunch of marriages, some resulting in kids, a few divorces, and at least one no longer with us (Blaze). I know of a number of other relationships of various lengths that have happened, as well.

Along the way, we've had one major hack (thanks, Mandor), several Real Life Gatherings of various sizes, numerous revisions of the rules, a bunch of shouting matches, probably a couple of enemies-for-life situations, and some maturing.

I've wondered from time to time: Why have I kept this place up? It costs me money every month, and while I got a sweet deal on the virtual machine on which it runs, it's still costing me $600 a year, and several thousand over the years. I have some other sites on the same server, but really it's mostly for RLF. I guess it's because I want those who once found a place to call home to always have that place to come back to whether it's daily, monthly, or every decade or so. Ultimately, I want those who were here before to know that they can still come back to a familiar place.

So, if you're still here, thank you. If you're returning, welcome back. If you're wondering if you should, the door is open.

Thank you, everyone, for twenty years and a day, and counting.

[raptor9k]

I can honestly say, I'm a completely different person today than when I started lurking so many years ago. Much of that change is due to the conversations and different views I've encountered in this place and a few others like it.

Thanks for keeping the lights on.

[bagheadinc]

It's been a while since I was a frequent poster here, but I will always be grateful for this place. I've had a lot of fun with some interesting people from all over the globe, spent hours in Photoshop making silly signature banners, helped code one of the iterations of the forum's template, waited patiently to post in a necrothread, met up with some of you lunatics in North Carolina, and so much more. Hell, without RLF, I wouldn't have met my wife!

[Deacon]

I can honestly say, I'm a completely different person today than when I started lurking so many years ago. Much of that change is due to the conversations and different views I've encountered in this place and a few others like it.

Legitimately, I am dramatically different in my world view due in massive part to this community. I am eternally grateful for the conversations and arguments engaged in here on this forum for nudging me in the direction into which I found some enlightenment of various forms. Plus the IRL experiences that came later helped in a real way shape the ups and downs of who I am now.

As with so many things, the technology options for community have largely moved on to different forms of what counts for social media, but my time spent here was not for naught.

[Blackjack]

Holy crap, 20 years. I'm in my 30s now, I was a literal child when I joined. Hell, I still remember the very first strip I saw (it was the vegetarian zombie one) while looking over the shoulder of my older brother. Not sure why that specific memory is so clearly burned into my brain.

I've always primarily been a lurker, but I recognise everyone from way back when - some fondly, some not. I wonder how a few of them are doing from time to time.
I have so many little memories of this place that are very keenly engraved. There's a number of exchanges I remember word-for-word. Avatars that bring memories flooding back like a familiar face. Fun fact: for years I thought Deacon looked like Donald Faison because he had Turk as his avatar and I had no idea what Scrubs was. Then I saw him in a photo thread and was very confused.

[Deacon]

Fun fact: for years I thought Deacon looked like Donald Faison because he had Turk as his avatar

Wait what?? I did? I don’t remember that.

[Blackjack]

It was after (or between) the cat avatar. Sadly, I can't find the specific Turk avatar, even though I remember exactly what it looked like.
I think I found the origin though, I did a quick search for 'Turk' to see if anyone else mentioned it and found a very old Scrubs thread where people were changing their avatars for fun.

I'd be Turk (Donald Faison), but I'm not remotely black.

Reporting for duty.

So maybe it was a short-lived avatar that just stuck with me as what I thought you looked like xD

[Doc Giggles]

A few people stuck around on EZBoard and kept that alive for a few years, but most of the action moved here.

There were two of us that kept an eye on the EZBoards until it was shut down. I kept an eye on it so I could point those that returned after a long time to here. Sadly the other person that hung around the EZBoards decided they didn't want to move over even after the shutdown.

[BtEO]

As I post this, it is exactly 20 years for me. Despite never having an account on the EZBoard I joined here pretty early for reasons I don't particularly remember — I wouldn't make my first post^[1] until nearly 8 months later. I believe at some point one iteration of supporting Mae financially came with wallpapers distributed by means of being granted access to a forum here, so if that coincided with the launch it might explain it.

At the time I didn't know this would go on to become my third, and by far the longest, internet home.

The first being a ARHQ, a community of Action Replay/Gameshark users and code creators (mostly for the N64 iteration of that tech)^[2]. The second was a pair of sites (Lotsofskins/Artuproar) run by the same person — couldn't tell you why I'd ended up there as I did not have much artistic talent. I also hung around Deskmod which was THE place to go for if you wanted new skins for your programs at that time but whose name had completely vanished from my brain until I remembered I have IRC logs (with channel names) from that period; Deskmod would later try to launch a blogging platform: ModBlog — both domains are now parked since social media nearly killed blogs, and skinnable applications stopped being a thing for the most part.

Even as it exists today the fact that there's something still here brings me comfort. I was never the most prolific poster in any community, and these days it feels like I have even less to share. But I'm still here, and I still enjoy hearing from those of you also still here.

---

[1] My first post was a pretty standard introduction, my second post was about the Opera browser — starting as I meant to go on

[2] Fun fact: Most of GoldenEye 007's cheats were unlocked by means of completing levels under certain time limits. The sole exception commonly known for a time was a button input code that unlocked extra characters for use in multiplayer.
It had been known for a long time that it was possible to show the cheats with AR codes but they would not remain unlocked once the codes were turned off, however there were also cheats that could be made to show in the menu which would just come up as NO NAME. Enable one of those, start a level, and a corresponding normal cheat would be properly unlocked on that save file.
Eventually someone on that forum found in memory a series of bitmasks that matched up with the button presses for the multiplayer characters cheat — and near them several other sequences. All of the push button cheats listed on GameFAQs besides the multiplayer characters code (which was presumably released by Rare themselves) owe their public knowledge to that forum.

[Deacon]

So maybe it was a short-lived avatar that just stuck with me as what I thought you looked like

Holy cow, that’s a small period from 2004. I guess I’m not surprised I have no real memory of it.

[NorthernComfort]

20 years... big. Thanks for keeping it running all these years, and thanks to the many interesting people I got to know and learned so much from over the past 2 decades.

[Martin Blank]

Thanks for keeping the lights on.

It's been a while since I was a frequent poster here, but I will always be grateful for this place.

As with so many things, the technology options for community have largely moved on to different forms of what counts for social media, but my time spent here was not for naught.

Even as it exists today the fact that there's something still here brings me comfort. I was never the most prolific poster in any community, and these days it feels like I have even less to share. But I'm still here, and I still enjoy hearing from those of you also still here.

20 years... big. Thanks for keeping it running all these years, and thanks to the many interesting people I got to know and learned so much from over the past 2 decades.

And these are why I did it, and why I keep doing it. Thank you, everyone.

[Rorschach]

Jesus. Twenty years. That is some shift.

I wasn't doing brilliantly when I joined this place. As I recall, I needed somewhere to just be outside of my normal space. And I ended up talking to a gang of weird dudes and dudettes about baby penguins and Trogdors and anime. Most of the time I just smiled and nodded. But this place was a place to be when I was a little lost and a group of - mostly - non-judgemental folk. A lot of whom I had absolutely nothing in common with and little shared perspective. But when I was lonely, people were here and when I needed to rant, people were polite enough to listen and when I was bored, people here were interesting.

I'm 46 and this place has been a part of my life since I was 26. That's a thought. And, honestly, this place is a big part of the reason I made it to 46.

You're like some mad family to me. All of you. Thank you. And thank you, MB. I don't know what I would have done without you all.

[Martin Blank]

You're like some mad family to me. All of you. Thank you. And thank you, MB. I don't know what I would have done without you all.

You're welcome, Rors. Eventually I plan to get to Scotland. I expect gratitude when I get there.

On a more serious note, you've been very open about your life. It has been such a rollercoaster watching what you've gone through from afar with a lot of ups and downs. It's been inspiring to see you get through it with humor, even if it takes a little bit for the humor to actually show up.

[Seir]

First thing I do want to get out of the way: If it's any consolation Jarrod, I did discover awhile back Mandor's actual profile on Facebook and lo' and behold, the guy is an actual neckbeard. Quite the contrast against all the male model pictures he was passing off as himself. Now it all makes sense why the guy was a total asshole, he's a sorry sack of shit in real-life who probably got picked on in real life.

But yeah, holy shit, can't believe it's been 20 years since this version of the forum went online. Met some forumites who did become irl friends and I'm grateful for that. Encountered a certain person who I still want to hunt down and choke the shit out for a number of reasons (Hey RFairney, you're lucky that judge didn't send you to jail for possession of child porn because all those made-up martial arts experiences you tried to use to grow your e-peen wouldn'tve saved your ass in the big house).

If this post sounds like some weird stream of conscious rant, sorry about that, I opened up this page while high.

Jarrod, I'd definitely love to welcome you to NJ again. Rors, I definitely want to visit Scotland one day like Jarrod.

Having the forum around is a nice little time-capsule that you can access at any time and reminisce about the past.

Anyone else notice that Garr The Sane's proposed New Orleans RLF meetup could've potentially put us there in during Hurrican Katrina? Trippy stuff.